Anglicanism:
It seems like a major point of Anglicanism is the belief in localities possessing independent authority, one from another. So, for example, the Archbishop of Cantebury (sp?) is not the English Pope, the supreme head of the Anglican Church. Instead, he is considered "first among equals," along with other clergy.
So, if I've come to believe that God ordained authority (apostolic succession?) is primary, I don't think I want to buy into a church that seems to not practice this. The point of putting your faith in authority is to believe the ladder runs all the way to the top.
So, it begs the question, why not become Catholic?
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5 comments:
Kenny, this is not me jumping into the fray to gain you for "my communion", because your standing with Christ is primary, and everything else, even though some things are important, are still secondary. But just to save you a lot of grief later on, I beg you to go past the books and debates and even the historical claims of any and all churches, and just go with your dear wife and try worshipping and praying with the Orthodox (not necessarily the Greeks) at their services. Don't even read about them. Just put study and even enquiry out of your mind and, just trusting Jesus, walk among them, go to an Orthodox Church of America parish, or an Antiochian Orthodox parish—they are the most accessible to Americans, especially evangelical Christians—and just worship there with them, unaffectedly, just let yourselves be embraced by the simplicity and lovingkindness of the divine services, the singing, the gentle movement. Christ really is among the Orthodox, and you'll never know unless you give it a try. It's just NOT playing church, and it's not playing God either, as you would find out if you joined the Roman Catholic Church. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. But if you found it defective and unworthy of you, you could easily withdraw. But I don't think you will.
Go with God, my dear brother and sister. He is faithful.
Romanós
Romanos, what do you mean by your reference to the Catholic church? Do you accuse them of "playing God" or "playing church"? What is your basis for that statement?
I've experienced simplicity, lovingkindness, and that sensation of being swept away into intimate worship of Christ/relationship with Christ in the Protestant church. What is your response to that?
I'm not saying this to put down the Orthodox church. Indeed, I must profess a profound ignorance of the Orthodox church and would like to learn a lot more. But you seem to be dissing the Catholic church for no reason I can discern.
Ben, my comments relative to playing church and to playing God are not aimed at particular institutions, but simply observations of what happens in all churches in a local sense, including the Orthodox, among whom you can easily find those who are "playing church" and others who are "playing God". This is part of my own current struggle, having been an active Christian in a particular Greek Orthodox community for about twenty years, and seeing how it has devolved gradually from a New Testamant reality experience to something like a business theatre, the "Father Paul Show."
My best experiences have been in some Anglican churches, Jewish synagogues, and Orthodox churches. My advice to him is born of these experiences.
I will give the Orthodox a try, although, not because I've been having any trouble with my recent Evangelical church. As Ben said (we went to the same church), I've experienced God perfectly well there.
But, I will soon begin a field trip to various denominations to see what their different practices are like.
But, if I were to embrace the Eastern Orthodox sensibility of not engaging the issue with a Western mind-set of inquiry and logic, then I wouldn't bother with any of these questions at all. I have not yet been in a Christian church which hindered my relationship with or worship of God (by Christian I mean "real" Christian - I have been in Catholic and Methodist churches which were clearly not "really" Christian).
I haven't read it closely, but a perhaps illuminating take on (at least Ugandan) Anglicanism, with the promising title: "What is Anglicanism?".
http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6002
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